Netflix (for Android)

With the free Netflix app for Android phones, Netflix subscribers can watch any movie or television show from the instant streaming catalogue anywhere over a WiFi signal, as well as a 3G and 4G connections. This ability to watch movies and TV shows anywhere makes the $7.99 per month cost of a streaming-only Netflix subscription a little more worthwhile—if you have the right Android-based phone. Currently (at launch), the Netflix for Android app is only compatible with a few phones : the HTC Incredible (running Android 2.2), HTC Nexus One (2.2, 2.3), HTC EVO 4G (2.2), HTC G2 (2.2), and Samsung Nexus S (2.3).

The app, which has already been released for iPhone (free, 4 stars) and iPad (free, 4 stars), works best with a reliable Wi-Fi signal, with which it delivers excellent picture quality and flawless audio. As expected, the picture quality downgrades over 4G, and slightly more over 3G, but the streaming itself is well optimized. The list of available movies and shows in the Instant catalogue is limited, missing award winners and new releases in particular, although it's still extensive.

The home screen lists titles you might be interested in watching, based on their likeness to other titles you've rated highly or genres that you've indicated you like (which you can adjust or add through the Netflix web site). The Genres button lets you browse available titles by genre. To search all the content in the Instant catalogue, browsing by genre is one of the best ways to find films and television series. The Search button brings up a basic search bar, although you can only search by title—not actor, director, or anything else. Since the Netflix app for iPhone was first released, Netflix has tweaked the way search results are ordered, improving them so they are intelligently ordered.

More The search tool has one great advantage on Android phones: predictive text selections appear after you type a few letters, so you never get stumped finding the right movie even if you introduce a typo into your search terms. Finally, the Queue tab pulls up your personalized and ordered list of things you plan to watch.

At the top of the home screen, a Resume button will direct you back to the last title you started watching but have not yet finished. Anytime you pause or stop watching, the app remembers that point and saves it to your Netflix account so that if you resume watching from any device, you can pick up exactly where you left off.

When a reliable Wi-Fi signal is near, Netflix streams beautifully, with crisp pictures, clear sound, and no stuttering. I did experience one crash midway through watching an episode of The IT Crowd, but the app was able to capture the information marking the point where it crashed, letting me resume with no problem in less than 10 seconds. With Wi-Fi, the app works great, and if you have the patience to wait for the Instant catalogue to beef up, the app can only get better.

Streaming over 3G is another story. With one or two bars of service, I could barely page through the main menu options. With three or four bars, I was able to launch a television episode to watch, but every minute or so, I'd have to endure a pause for buffering. Additionally, the picture becomes more pixilated, as one might expect. Nevertheless, Netflix has done a very good job optimizing the Android app. For example, if you're in an area where phone service signal strength fluctuates, the buffering works in such a way that you can get your fill of entertainment fairly seamlessly, provided the signal flickers into the three to four bar range at least once every 30 seconds, give or take a few.

Future Netflix App Wish List
Despite what's missing from the Instant streaming catalogue, the app itself leaves little to complain about. The streaming is great. The app is simple. Every movie entry contains quick information about it, such as the year it was released, MPAA rating (G, PG, PG-13, etc.), running time, and either the average star rating from other Netflix users or your personal star rating if you've entered one.

One "nice to have" improvement that I'd love to see in a future release is a search tool that integrates with IMDB, which can find movies by title, actor, director, character name, writer, and more. Currently, the Android app finds matches by title only.

I'd also like to see new socially-enhanced options in the recommendation engine, such as the ability to connect with friends and see how they've rated movies, or get recommendations based on movies your friends liked. Netflix's recommendation system has a reputation for being excruciatingly lame. If you've ever had a Netflix account, you've probably cringed more than once at a suggested movie, regretting any star ratings you've inputted, much less those three stars you gave Big Momma's House 2. With so many other e-commerce sites leaning on social networks for recommendations and shopping advice, it only makes sense for Netflix to add a social component to its service with an opt-in policy and some additional privacy controls.

Final Word
The biggest complaint about Netflix overall, and it's a valid one, is that a lot of movies and shows most people would like to watch just aren't in the Instant bank. And it's not just new releases. Almost all the Academy Award Best Picture winners are absent from the list, too, from Ben-Hur (1960) to Gandhi (1983).

Netflix doesn't deserve the blame here (the movie studios do). If anything, Netflix has a history of being slightly ahead of the curve, offering media streaming several critical months before the masses were ready to adopt it, in effect buying enough time to fine tune the service before it became widespread. By the time movie publishers figure out how they're going to try and recoup some money in the new disc-less world, Netflix will be set up and ready to negotiate the terms, having already ironed out the basic issues and gotten North America on board.

If Netflix eventually pushes a fully disc-less agenda (which I think it will), the Android app will be an integral part of the service's value proposition. The trick will be for the developers at Netflix to test out service on all the many Android phones that exist. Netflix instant streaming is already supported by many set-top box streaming players, three game consoles, Blu-ray players from 10 manufacturers, and a host of other devices. Netflix is a leader in the market, and it's positioned to only get better.

original article.

Analyst: Prepare for 'iphone 4 s on sprint and tmobile.

This is bitter sweet news for me.. only becasue i wanted an iphone and considered swithing from tmobile to at&t but then verizon got it and rumors were leaked to belived that tmobile were in talks.. but i couldnt wait years for a new phone so i recently purchased a my touch 4g and now i want the iphone if it comes to t-mobile! just my luck1 but i am excited if i can somehow get the iphone4s.

I should know better than to report on analyst predictions about the next iPhone -- they're often wrong -- but the latest from Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek is irresistible.

Misek said in a research note that the iPhone 5 will actually be called the iPhone 4S, suggesting that it'll be a minor upgrade similar to the iPhone 3GS in 2009. The new phone will include Apple's A5 dual-core processor, better cameras and minor cosmetic changes.

But the bigger piece of scuttlebutt is carrier support. Misek's research note said the iPhone 4S will support Sprint and T-Mobile, finally bringing Apple's smartphone to all four major U.S. carriers. Verizon's speedy LTE 4G network, however, won't be supported. Reportedly, Qualcomm's LTE chipset isn't producing sufficient yields, so superfast downloads will have to wait for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 4S will support HSPA+ networks, Misek's research note said.

Most of this stuff seems plausible, and the T-Mobile iPhone rumor has shown its face before. The only real curveball is Sprint support, but with AT&T losing its exclusivity on the iPhone earlier this year, a Sprint iPhone wouldn't be a shock. Most rumors expect the iPhone 4S, or iPhone 5, or whatever, to launch in September, so we'll find out what Misek's inside dirt is worth then.

Original Article.

pple, Verizon to offer wireless updates to iPhone?

Ideas like these make me very curious to see what the future holds for us.. whats next! that's the exciting part waiting and expecting only the best from now on.

Will Verizon iPhone users finally be able to update their devices wirelessly without the need for iTunes?

Multiple sources have told Apple news site 9to5Mac that Apple and Verizon Wireless will soon offer over-the-air updates to the iPhone following this fall's expected release of iOS 5. Although iOS 5 itself won't be available wirelessly, 9to5Mac reports that any future updates to the OS will come over the air. With such a change, people would no longer need a PC and iTunes to act as the middlemen to keep their smartphones current.

If the reports are true, Apple would join rival Google, which already offers Android users the ability to update their devices sans computer. Apple reportedly also has the technology to update its devices over the air already, but the company has apparently been cautious about opening it up everywhere. However, Apple has been chatting with Verizon about unleashing this technology since early this year, said 9to5Mac.

The sources didn't say whether wireless updates would also be available on AT&T or international carriers of the iPhone. No specific mention was made to the iPad or iPod Touch, but the same technology logically should extend to all of Apple's iOS devices.

Though over-the-air updates would provide a convenient, mobile way to keep the iPhone updated, there are a couple of potential pitfalls.

Most iOS updates now weigh in at over 600MB, a hefty payload to deliver wirelessly. 9to5Mac believes Apple would have to pare down the size of its updates, perhaps by offering smaller and more incremental updates rather than fewer and larger updates.

Also, updating an iPhone through iTunes first syncs the contents of the device to the PC as a precaution in the event the update fails. If an update were to bypass iTunes, people would need some other way to back up and sync their devices, perhaps through some sort of cloud-based system.

Tech enthusiast site Pocket Lint adds a slightly different spin to the story, saying that if Apple were to apply over-the-air updates, it would apply them universally and not just to the Verizon iPhone. The site believes we'll hear more about this potential new development in a month when Apple opens the doors to its Worldwide Developers Conference.

Article.

Sony's Anonymous claim: a health warning

Long article but i mean i know everyone was pretty shocked and intrigued by this story when it first happen.

This week, Sony Corporation claimed to Congress that its investigation of the breach by which millions of customers had their credit card numbers compromised had turned up a document left on the server in question entitled "Anonymous" and containing the phrase "We are Legion", itself a fragment of our longtime slogan. Some have taken this as proof that Anonymous was responsible for the most significant online heists in memory. After all, the online activist movement has lately been engaged in a battle with Sony over its treatment of two individuals who taught others how to alter the PlayStation 3 in such a way as to install Linux OS on the gaming console, making Anonymous a natural suspect.

But those observers who are most familiar with who Anonymous is – such as the dozens of journalists who have been free to watch us at work in our operational venues – tend to agree with us that the circumstances of this incident are highly suspicious, and that any investigation into the crime in question must take into account the natural question of who might benefit from such an act – in other words, a party or parties who would have an interest in smearing Anonymous.

The perpetration of a crime for the purpose of framing another party and thereby damaging its reputation is hardly unusual. The FBI spent two decades operating a programme called COINTELPRO, by which agents would infiltrate "dangerous" groups, such as those advocating civil rights, and then promote violence by its members in order to discredit their cause in the eyes of the public and justify police crackdowns. A congressional committee that investigated the issue concluded that "the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of first amendment rights of speech and association."

Such practices continue today. It was only a few months ago that Anonymous's counter-investigation into a group of federal contractors including HBGary Federal, Palantir and Belrico revealed that the three companies – collectively known then as "Team Themis" – had prepared a plan to attack WikiLeaks to submit to law firm Hunton & Williams (retained by Bank of America, panicked over the prospect of a leak concerning its executives). The scheme was to consist of such things as disinformation, placement of fake documents, clandestine operations against WikiLeaks supporter Glenn Greenwald, and "cyber attacks against the infrastructure to get data on document submitters".

Of course, Anonymous itself engages in attacks of that latter sort. On the other hand, Anonymous does so against dictatorships and corrupt institutions that engage in corruption alongside the state – and when we do, the FBI raids the homes of our alleged participants. Not being as respectable as our corporate counterparts, we are not permitted to act with seeming impunity.

Now, having made enemies of the dozens of other firms whose wrongdoing we have exposed in the months since, by way of Operation Metal Gear and other crowdsourced investigations, Anonymous is accused of having committed a major crime entirely different from the campaigns of civil disobedience for which we are rightfully known. The evidence is a single document that helpfully names us as the perpetrators. Sony has thus managed to shift attention away from its own failure to protect client data, while federal agencies have been diverted into a pursuit of us, this time for a massive theft rather than popular acts of revolt. Presently, I have no proof that this action was taken by any of the powerful and sophisticated enemies we have made in the world of intelligence-contracting or law enforcement; but neither can they prove that Anonymous was responsible for this heist.

At any rate, an investigation is being conducted by the usual people. Congress is now on the job. Even more heartening, Attorney General Eric Holder says that the justice department is taking this "very seriously". It is good to see those two entities adopting a healthier work ethic: when, a few months ago, Representative Hank Johson called for Congress to look into the activities of Team Themis in coordination with Hunton & Williams, Representative Lamar Smith, a Republican from Texas, declined, asserting that this was the responsibility of the justice department. He did not seem to think it problematic that, as shown by the HBGary emails, it was the justice department itself that recommended Hunton & Williams to Bank of America.

Eric Holder having presumably been too busy to investigate that particular matter, Anonymous is, of course, flattered to learn that criminal activity that allegedly involves us is a higher priority than dubious activity that definitely involved his own department. Or perhaps, there is some other explanation

Article.

What Should Apple’s iCloud Look Like?

I'm very interested to see what the future has in store for us technology wise, its going to be pretty epic!

Friday morning, John Paczkowski of Digital Daily confirmed Om’s report earlier this week that Apple acquired the domain name iCloud.com. Apple has acquired and not used domain names in the past, but if Cupertino is planning to use the iCloud brand, what should that trademark encompass?

There’s already plenty of speculation out there about what plans Apple might have in store for cloud service offerings. A revamped MobileMe complete with iOS device remote media streaming of your photos and music is one frequently mentioned possibility. Clues that a service called Photo Stream is coming to iOS have already showed up in code from Apple’s mobile operating system, and rumblings that a cloud music storage and remote streaming service is on its way are only getting louder.

Apple also probably won’t take away any of the existing service it already offers. It’s currently in the process of moving all MobileMe Calendar data to remote server storage, and cross-device email, notes and address book syncing also seem like likely candidates for any larger cloud service package from Cupertino. Indeed, AppleInsider is now reporting that this is in fact the case.

But what else do you want from a cloud service offering from Apple? Are the existing MobileMe offerings even something you’re interested in? Are mobile bandwidth costs a concern? Should Apple’s cloud plans include a basic free offering, and what extras, if any, would you be willing to pay for?

Original Article.

White Iphone 4 chunkier than its Black sibling?

Hello happy Friday!! well yesterday my boyfriend bought the new white iPhone 4, and i will admit its soo sexy! looks elegant, expensive, it just looks nice! i want one for my self but sadly i do not have at&t or Verizon, so the white iPhone 4 can be slightly chunkier, but either way its damn sexy, who said bigger was bad?

After nearly a year of waiting for the white iPhone 4, which went on sale Thursday, it seems the phone is -- and take your choice here of words — fatter, chunkier, thicker — than the black version.

Those who bought the much-desired white iPhone, which became available Thursday, compared the thickness of the phone next to its black version, and find it to be about 0.2mm thicker than the black iPhone 4.

On Apple's website, the technical specs for the iPhone 4 show it to be the same, although a photo of the black iPhone is used for the tech specs, which lists the depth of the phone at 9.3 mm, or .37 inch.

"I noticed it when my trusty Case Mate Barely There case barely fit on my new white iPhone 4," said Rene Ritchie on TiPb's website. "In fact, it fit like my old black iPhone 4 id back when it had BodyGuardz front and back. It still went in, but it was a much closer, almost too close fit compared to the black iPhone 4. Whether the extra thickness has to do with opacity, a layer of UV protection, or something else is unknown."

Ryan Cash, who handles marketing for a company that makes business apps for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, also saw the difference after comparing a colleague's newly purchased white iPhone to his own black iPhone.

"I was a bit surprised when I picked it up off his desk (I had my black 32 GB in my other hand at the same time) — it immediately felt thicker," he said on his blog. "We placed them side-by-side on his desk, and sure enough, the white iPhone was a hair thicker."

Over at DVICE, there was this to say: "First, Apple makes its customers wait 10 months for a white iPhone because it needed a special UV coating and second, it's now fatter than the black one and might not fit in your old case? Forget it."

We've asked Apple about the size difference, but have not heard back yet. The white iPhone has been problematic since it was first announced last summer.

"It was challenging,” Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller told Ina Fried in an interview this week for All Things Digital. "It’s not as simple as making something white. There’s a lot more that goes into both the material science of it — how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors."

Schiller, Fried wrote, "said that it turned out there were a lot of unexpected interactions between the color of the device and various internal components. Also, like fair-skinned humans, white iPhones need a little more UV protection from the sun."

And, perhaps a little help in the diet department, too.

Original Article.

Twitter Looks To Widen Appeal To More Users

Who tweets? anyone? lol i tweet and so does almost everyone i know tweets or has a twitter account, but they make a good point, you can tell when the account is active or not. anyways enjoy the article, I'm about to tweet it :)


Twitter Inc., trying to put recent management changes behind it and build its business, is taking steps to broaden the appeal of the well-known messaging service.

Twitter is making a concerted effort to educate its users about what, exactly, it is. WSJ's Amir Efrati explains why to Stacey Delo.
.The San Francisco company, which lets users broadcast and view short messages, wants to make it easier for new users to navigate the service and help longtime users find interesting content.

While Twitter has more than 200 million registered accounts, it doesn't say how many are active users. Users discuss a variety of topics, but some people—especially adults—view the service as a vehicle for celebrities to broadcast their thoughts online.

Twitter wants to show how the service works to first-time users by highlighting tweets from people in their geographic regions, such as local politicians and musicians, when they first sign on, people familiar with the matter said.

Jonathan Strauss, chief executive of Awe.sm, which tracks marketing campaigns on Twitter and Facebook Inc., argues that Twitter needs to attract more mainstream Internet users if it wants to justify its multibillion-dollar valuation. "Most people understand Twitter exists, but they don't understand what Twitter is and how they can participate," he said.

For more experienced users, Twitter is developing ways to create a narrower stream of the most relevant tweets rather than requiring users to wade through messages in chronological order.

As it looks to add tools for power users, Twitter is also in advanced talks to purchase a program used by many Twitter users to view and manage tweets, Tweetdeck, for around $50 million, people familiar with the matter said.

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Bloomberg News

Jack Dorsey, a Twitter founder, recently returned as its product chief. He has become more active advising the company.
.It is unclear when the changes will be introduced or how Twitter may use Tweetdeck. A spokesman for Twitter, which has made seven small acquisitions to date, declined to comment. TweetDeck Inc.'s chief executive, Iain Dodsworth, couldn't be reached.

The moves come as Jack Dorsey, the founding chief executive of the four-year-old company, formally returned as product chief three weeks ago after being pushed out by the board two-and-a-half years ago.

Mr. Dorsey remained chairman of Twitter's board after his ouster, and also leads a mobile-payments company named Square Inc. Mr. Dorsey has been laying out his vision for Twitter to its executives, said a person familiar with the matter.

Twitter allows users to post messages of up to 140 characters in length, and those messages can be viewed by other users. People log on—often through their mobile phones—to track everything from sporting events to transportation delays to natural disasters. Egyptians, for example, used the service to organize revolutionary protests earlier this year.

The company has been slower to build a business around its popularity than some other Web players, such as Facebook. The research firm eMarketer puts Twitter 2010 ad revenue at $45 million and expects ad revenue to reach $150 million this year.

Yet Twitter investors are buying up shares of the privately held company on secondary exchanges or through individual middlemen. Twitter completed a financing at the end of last year that valued the company at around $4 billion, though it has argued for higher valuations in low-level talks with potential acquirers, including Google Inc., people familiar with the matter have said.

The company this year will try to make the breadth of its content more visible to first-time visitors, helping them quickly discover information about stocks, sports and other organizations and individuals they care about, the people familiar with the matter said.

One possibility is showcasing tweets by well-known people or organizations located in the user's region, or from certain types of users, such as athletes or musicians.

Twitter users already have created thousands of "lists" in which such content on specific topics is grouped together, and Twitter is looking at ways to promote such lists, said a person familiar with the matter.

Twitter is also exploring concepts similar to a Facebook technology called "EdgeRank" that highlights posts by a user's closest friends—an effort that is being aided by Ashish Goel, a Twitter research fellow and Stanford University professor, these people said.

"Most of the time what people want is the most relevant and important information, and without filtering its content for individual users that's difficult for Twitter to satisfy," said Awe.sm's Mr. Straus

Original Article.

Samsung defends itself over Apple tablet, phone suit

My Boyfriend just told me about this yesterday as a matter of fact, i guess this one just goes into more basic details about the problems. Hope you enjoy the article! is pretty funny since Samsung makes all of Apples screens!

The relationship between Apple and Samsung looks to be taking a dramatic turn for the worse, as Apple sued the company over alleged copying of its iPhone and iPad devices in Samsung's own products. Specifically named was the Galaxy Tab tablet as well as the Nexus S, Epic 4G and Galaxy S 4G smartphones.

Apple filed the suit on April 15 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, and claims that the appearance and methods of operation of Samsung's devices directly violate patents held by Apple. Indeed, as of late the Korean electronics maker has mimicked Apple's popular products in its own efforts.

Its tablets and smartphones do have some sort of Apple-like appearance, and even the packaging the devices come in looks like something out of Cupertino. Apple has been quick to notice this. "This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas," an Apple spokesperson said.

Last week's suit is symptomatic of a deteriorating relationship between Apple and Samsung, once strong partners. The Korean electronics maker is a significant supplier of components across many of Apple's products, but its moves into Cupertino's turf -- and its success doing so -- may have given Apple some pause.

At its unveiling of the iPad 2, CEO Steve Jobs specifically called out Samsung, also paraphrasing a statement incorrectly by a representative from the company. Regardless of what Jobs or Apple is saying, Samsung may have decided up until now to deal with it -- Apple makes up about five percent of the company's total revenues, and is Samsung's second biggest component customer behind Sony.

The free pass may be over, through. On Tuesday, Samsung appeared to say enough is enough. "Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property," it said in a statement.

A report by Yonhap News Agency also quotes unnamed sources as saying that Samsung believes Apple has violated the company's own patents, so a countersuit may not be far behind. It also said the sources claimed the company "had no choice" but to respond strongly.

Original Article.

Apple Is Said to Ready White IPhone Following 10-Month Wait

ITS ABOUT TIME! even tho i was looking forward to the Iphone 5, which is rumored to not come out until 2012.. hmm well either way i know my boyfriend will be very excited for this!

Apple Inc. (AAPL) will start selling a white version of its iPhone 4 in the next few weeks, following a 10-month delay, three people with knowledge of the plans said.

The new model will be available from AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Wireless by the end of April, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The release was stalled as Apple resolved manufacturing challenges, including paint that peeled under heat, one person said.

Adding a white model may help spur demand as Apple works on the next generation of its top-selling product. Apple, the world’s largest technology company by market value, isn’t planning to unveil a new iPhone at its June developers’ conference, breaking with its practice in past years, two people familiar with the matter said. It may instead introduce the next iPhone in September, according to Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.

After releasing the iPhone 4 in June, Apple announced the delay of the white version, citing unspecified manufacturing trouble. Complications with a sensor used in the device was one difficulty, one of the people said. Until now, it’s only been available in black.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, indicated last month that a white model would be available soon, writing on Twitter that it would be on sale by spring.

Since the introduction of the first iPod media player in 2001, white has been a popular color for Apple’s gadgets. The earlier iPhone 3GS model was available in white, as is the iPad 2, which went on sale last month.

The iPhone accounted for 39 percent of Apple’s sales in the fiscal first quarter, which ended in December. The Cupertino, California-based company is due to report second-quarter financial results on April 20.

Apple fell $3.71 to $332.42 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have advanced 3.1 percent this year. AT&T, based in Dallas, rose 11 cents to $30.29 on the New York Stock Exchange, and has gained 3.1 percent this year

Original Article.

iOS 4 purportedly references CDMA iPhone 4, next-gen iPad

A new report claims that the source code of iOS 4 references new hardware from Apple that is about to begin field testing, including a two revised iPhone 4 models potentially compatible with the Verizon network, and a next-generation iPad.

With a screenshot of the alleged source code to bolster their claim, Boy Genius Report reported on Monday that an "intriguing" piece of code found in iOS 4 indicates that new hardware is set to begin field testing. The source code is said to reference three products: "iPhone3,2," "iPhone3,3," and "iProd2,1."

"Our source says that the code queries the device, and if the device is either a CDMA iPhone or iPad 2, the device will auto-activate, thus bypassing the need for iTunes," the report said. "We're told this block of code has appeared every year consequently before a major iPhone / device release, removed right before launch. This allows the products to be field tested by carriers (or partners) without having to activate the handsets or devices."

Last year, a mystery device known as "iProd" began showing up in beta builds of iOS 3.1. The hardware eventually became the iPad, announced in January of 2010. The "2,1" distinction allegedly found in iOS 4 would suggest that it is actually a revised, next-generation version of the iPad in testing.

Apple always uses the first number in these device identifiers to refer to major revisions, the naming schemes allude to a second major reworking of the iPhone in testing at Apple as well as a minor revision of the current iPod touch and a third-generation overhaul. The original iPhone is seen as iPhone 1,1, while the iPhone 3G appears as iPhone 1,2 -- a minor upgrade to an existing design. The first- and second-generation iPod touch show as 1,1 and 2,1 respectively.

The two iPhone models said to be referenced in the source code carry the same "3,X" suffix, which likely means that the devices are not a complete revision from the existing iPhone 4.

Another tipster reportedly told BGR that CDMA iPhone is code-named N92AP, while the platform for the next-generation iPod touch is N81AP.

Boy Genius Report has had a respectable track record in forecasting AT&T and iPhone related announcements, but some of its Apple rumors have been less than accurate. Last year the site incorrectly indicated iTunes 9 would add Blu-ray support and said Apple would create a social media consolidation application, both times citing a "reliable" source. In January, the site also inaccurately hinted that a Verizon announcement would coincide with Apple's introduction of the iPad.

In June, the site claimed that a Verizon-compatible CDMA iPad with 4G LTE was being tested. It said that a CDMA iPhone and iPad would likely arrive "very soon." And in July, the site claimed that a cloud-based iTunes service was "definitely happening soon," but was quickly disputed by insiders contacted by CNet.

Apple's public relations also recently denied a purported email exchange between a customer and Steve Jobs that was published by the site as being "100% legitimate." The most sensationalist remarks attributed to Jobs, telling a customer to "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it," were mistakenly attributed to Jobs on accident.

Original Article.

RIM, T-Mobile Announce BlackBerry Curve 3G

The BlackBerry Torch just came out last week, but RIM has already moved on to the BlackBerry Curve 3G. The midrange Curve 3G - which will get an upgrade to the new BlackBerry 6 OS - is coming out from T-Mobile in the next few weeks, the carrier said.

The Curve 3G replaces T-Mobile's Curve 8520 with a faster 624-MHz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11n, and 3G HSDPA Internet connectivity, although it keeps the relatively low-res 2.4-inch, 320-by-240 screen and 2-megapixel camera. Interestingly, the Wi-Fi is noted for "data and voice," which means that this phone will work with T-Mobile's unheralded (but much loved) Hotspot@Home voice-over-Wi-Fi system.

There's not all that much exciting in the Curve 3G's hardware. The exciting part is that promised BlackBerry 6 upgrade, which will bring a new Web browser and lots of new media features to the phone. RIM and T-Mobile's announcement didn't give a date for the BlackBerry 6 upgrade.

T-Mobile didn't announce a price for the Curve 3G, but it will probably be pretty inexpensive; the Curve 8520 debuted at under $50 with contract. The Curve 3G's appearance also reminds us that the Torch probably doesn't have a very long exclusivity period with AT&T, as the Torch and Curve 3G complement each other quite neatly to provide low-end and high-end options from RIM.

original article.

Rumors of a Verizon iPhone get louder

Two new reports give some heft to oft-heard rumors that the iPhone may be coming to Verizon Wireless, possibly as soon as January 2011.

The first report is based on AT&T's quarterly filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, in which the company talks about reducing its dependence on "any single handset," with carrier's exclusivity arrangement with Apple in the United States due to end sometime in the near future.

The second is from a TechCrunch report which says that "sources with knowledge of this entire situation" say that Apple has submitted orders for Qualcomm CDMA chipsets "for a Verizon iPhone run due in December. This production run would likely be for a January launch."

These two items provide creedence to a Bloomberg report from last June saying that the Verizon iPhone would indeed be shipping in January.

The iPhone, which came out in 2007, runs on AT&T's GSM network; CDMA, another technology, is used by Verizon Wireless and Sprint. However, both AT&T and Verizon Wireless are moving to a fourth-generation wireless technology known as LTE in the next year, although that rollout will take a few years to complete. There could be a combination CDMA/LTE chip for the iPhone, or perhaps the CDMA chips being ordered by Apple could power another of its devices, such as the iPad tablet.

In its SEC filing, AT&T noted its need to branch out even more with its offerings — and AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega helped unveil Research In Motion's newest BlackBerry, the Torch, last week.

"We offer a large variety of handsets, including at least 18 smart phones (including Apple iPhones, our most popular models) with advanced operating systems from at least 7 manufacturers," AT&T said in the quarterly filing.

original article.

How BlackBerry developed its mobile phone and networks

The decision of the United Arab Emirates to ban BlackBerry email, messenger and web browsing services goes to the heart of the way in which the handheld devices operate – itself a consequence of the mobile market in which they were born.

When the first BlackBerry appeared, over a decade ago, mobile phone networks were far more basic than they are today. The most innovative service the majority of users had seen since mobile devices first appeared in the 1980s was the introduction of text messaging.

In the US, many mobile users were still making calls on analogue networks, while in Europe the new digital operators were only just introducing data services. But the sorts of speeds possible over networks such as Orange and Cellnet in the UK were pitiful. Speeds of 9.6Kb per second – less than 1% of the average speed available in the UK today, according to recent research – meant the networks had to resort to offering a pared-down version of the internet using Wap (Wireless application protocol) technology. Using a mobile phone to receive email, let alone access the "real" internet was almost unheard of.

By the mid-1990s, Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) was already working with partners on a messaging device that would work on a new wireless data network, which its owners hoped would be rolled out across Europe and the US. It was not much of a success – although the UK network that used this technology eventually became Turbo Dispatch, which now sends mechanics from local garages to help millions of stranded motorists every year.

As a result, RIM switched to working with the existing mobile phone companies, but to squeeze emails across their networks meant using compression technology. RIM also needed to be able to persuade jittery corporate IT departments their emails would be safe, which required encryption technology. To create such a lean and secure service required an end-to-end solution, with both the device, the BlackBerry, and the server hosting the user's email being able to understand each other. However, RIM wanted to be able to offer its devices on any mobile phone network.

As a result, it created the Network Operations Centre (Noc), which seems to have created such a headache in the Gulf. Every mobile phone operator that wants to offer BlackBerry devices has to have a connection to a Noc: – there is apparently one based in Canada to cover the Americas and one covering Europe and Asia. A company that wants to offer BlackBerrys to its employees, meanwhile, has to install software within its own IT systems that can communicate with the Noc.

When a user's inbox receives a new email, that software securely communicates with the Noc, which then connects securely to the BlackBerry over a mobile phone network to deliver the email. It uses compression technology to make sure the email can be squeezed over even the most congested network. Numerous research reports over the past year have suggested that BlackBerrys are at least five times more efficient at email and attachment viewing than any other platform.

RIM has since opened its network up to consumer email services such as Gmail and Hotmail, which together with the introduction of a range of stylish devices aimed at the consumer market has created a boom in usage of BlackBerry phones among teenagers. Opening up the RIM network to the web has also allowed internet browsing, which is also apparently faster on a BlackBerry than other devices. They are three times more efficient than other carriers, according to a recent report by Rysavy Research.

But there is another side-effect to the way that RIM's network architecture is configured and it has been seized upon by cash-strapped teenagers: BlackBerry Messenger. Because RIM knows every BlackBerry device in use, regardless of which network it is on, and they are all directly connected to its Nocs, BlackBerry users who have devices with the right software can communicate with each other without incurring the network interconnection and roaming charges associated with text messages.

Text messages and telephone calls, meanwhile, are routed solely over a mobile phone network, so neither will be affected by the UAE's decision. That also explains why when there is a problem with RIM's network – which has happened in the past – BlackBerry users can still make calls.

The first BlackBerry appeared in the late 1990s and was effectively a two-way pager. The first full email device – the 5810 – appeared in 2002.

The name, incidentally, was created by the company's brand agency, which looked at the trademark small buttons on the device's keyboard and decided they looked like the pips on a strawberry. That name, however, sounded too "slow". Blackberry sounded punchier and it stuck.
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original article.

Google will stop selling Nexus One phones in U.S.

Google's Nexus One phone, touted as a "super" phone by Google and a key iPhone competitor when it launched in January, is now history in the United States. The search giant said it will no longer sell the phone via its website once existing stock is depleted.

"Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google," the company said on its blog. "Customer support will still be available for current Nexus One customers. And Nexus One will continue to be sold by partners including Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea, and possibly others based on local market conditions."

The Nexus One got high marks from reviewers, and is considered a signature Android phone, using the operating system that Google helped create. But it has struggled to find a market. The advent of other high-profile Android phones — including those built by HTC, which makes the Nexus One — have marked stiff competition, and lessened the need for Google to sell a gold-standard phone of its own. Notable models include Motorola's Droid, Droid X and HTC Droid Incredible running on Verizon Wireless, Samsung's Galaxy S, which will appear on a variety of carriers, and the HTC Evo, which runs on Sprint's high-speed 4G wireless network.

Sales of the phone were also hurt by Google's novel and early efforts to sell the phone only via its website, with spartan customer support in the first weeks after the $529 phone became available.

"With only a small percentage of handset sales going through the Web, it was difficult for the Nexus One to gain much momentum," said Ross Rubin, NPD Group analyst. "Google may have backed into such limited distribution to avoid competing too directly with its (Android) handset partners."

Customers could order the phone to be used on T-Mobile's network, and pay $179 for it with a two-year contract. The Nexus One also runs on AT&T's network, but the carrier does not subsidize the cost of the phone, as it does with most others. Sprint, which had indicated it would run the Nexus One, later changed its mind, with the company saying it would instead concentrate on the new HTC Evo. (Verizon Wireless also quietly backed away from supporting the Nexus One.)

Then, in May, Google said it would stop selling the Nexus One on its website "once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores." That did not happen.

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.While Google has not released sales figures for the Nexus One, "it's likely in the hundreds of thousands, not millions," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and technology analysis at Interpret, LLC.

"It was an experiment in retailing that might not have succeeded, but it also redefined the standard for Android devices and that was successful," he said. "Google managed to drive hardware partners to better designs, specs and features in order to stay competitive."

The Nexus One, with its 3.7-inch touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera, "remains one of the best Android devices on the market," Gartenberg said.

The phone is the second high-profile one in a month to be abandoned by its creator. Microsoft's Kin, a social networking phone carried by Verizon Wireless, was discontinued in June after only six weeks on the market. (Msnbc.com is an NBC Universal-Microsoft joint venture.) Some attributed the failure not to the phone's sticker price but to the fact that Verizon decided to charge customers for a full smart-phone data plan, in spite of the phone's limited functionality.

Google's Nexus One announcement came Friday, the same day Apple CEO Steve Jobs held a press conference about the iPhone 4 and its antenna issue, saying iPhone 4 owners will get free bumpers to deal with the reception problem caused by how the phone is held.

"Earlier this year, we announced that we will be closing the Nexus One web store," Google said on its blog. "This week we received our last shipment of Nexus One phones. Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google ....

"To ensure our developers have access to a phone with the latest Android OS (operating system), Google will be offering the Nexus One through a partner for sale to registered developers."

© 2010 msnbc.com Reprints

original article.

Android Gets a Build-Your-Own-App App

I think the Android phones are doing great with marketing and appealing to all their customers, and i wish APPLE would open their contract to all mobile carriers so i can get an Iphone! haha but until then maybe an ANDROID phone wont be that bad. short sweet and simple article.

Got an idea for a smartphone app? If you've got an Android phone you might be able to build it yourself, thanks to App Inventor for Android, a new Google Labs program for Windows, OS X, and Linux that's designed to make building Android programs as easy as piecing blocks together.

Steve Lohr's story in the New York Times makes it sound sensational; here's a video from Google showing a lady creating her first App Inventor app:

App Inventor is in closed beta at the moment, and Google says it'll let folks in "soon" -- you can sign up here. As you'll see if you fill out the sign-up form, Google sees the program as an educational tool of particular interest to teachers and students.

It's an exciting idea that's more than slightly reminiscent of HyperCard, the brilliant visual programming tool that was a big deal on the Mac more than twenty years ago, and which is missed to this day. HyperCard or something similar would be a boon on the iPhone -- even Steve Jobs has says he thinks so, although Apple apparently doesn't have any interest in building such an application itself, and new restrictions in the iOS developer agreement prevent apps developed with the HyperCard-like RunRev from being distributed on the App Store.

(More and more, I think that the surface similarities between Android and iOS are less interesting than the fundamental differences in emphasis and philosophy -- and the more different the two OSes get, the more interesting they'll be.)

I still have a cranky-old-man rant about PCs getting boring when they stopped coming with BASIC and normal people therefore stopped learning how to write their own software. I can't wait to get my hands on App Inventor -- and to see whether it's capable of creating programs that anyone other than their inventors will want to use . .

original article.

Apple App Store Suffers Hack Attack

Apple said Tuesday that it removed a seller from its online applications store after discovering that he gamed the store's sales ranking system to make it appear as though his e-books accounted for 42 of the site's top 50 electronics books.
Apple said the hack was carried about by a developer named Thuat Nguyen.

"His apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns," Apple said in a statement.
The company did not provide details about how Nguyen managed to rig its sales data. Some observers are speculating that he merely manipulated sales figures, while others believe Nguyen may have actually gained access to App Store user accounts to make unauthorized purchases.


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Nguyen listed his Web site as "mycompany", an Internet address that reportedly leads to a domain name parking page.

Apple insisted App Store or iTunes users' information is not at risk as a result of the incident. "Developers do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded," the company said.

Still, Apple cautioned its customers to be vigilant for suspicious transactions.

"If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about cancelling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions," Apple said.

"We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately," Apple added. Investors shrugged off news about the breach. Apple shares were up .69%, to $248.65, in midday trading Tuesday.

original article.

Reiner Says Verizon May Sell 12 Million IPhones in 2011: Video

When is the Iphone going to be Universal! i want one and i have tmobile seriously APPLE consider it.. you'll make twice as much money come one! i want an IPhone! i mean i feel like literally everyone i know has one, dont get me wrong i love my blackberry but ive had BB"s for as long as i can remember and i really want an iPhone.

Yair Reiner, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., and James Ratcliffe, an analyst with Barclays Capital, discuss the outlook for Apple Inc. iPhone sales by Verizon Wireless when the carrier begins selling the device next January.

AT&T has had exclusive claim on the smartphone in the U.S. since it was introduced in 2007. They speak with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg


original article.

Hands on with iOS 4 folders

It seems like everyone i know has an Iphone, and i seem to be the only one with a blackberry these days lol but either way i still love the iphones i just don't have the right company and actually i think when my contract is up i will be going to at &, anyways its neat that you can update the software on your phone but still keep the same phone. i lovee that idea.

When the iPhone first debuted, all its apps could fit on a single Home screen. But it didn’t take long—especially once the App Store opened up shop—for even the most novice of iPhone users to require multiple screens. And once you started downloading new apps regularly, as many iPhone owners have done over the past couple years, you ended up with screen after screen after screen of apps to swipe through, with more than a few users exhausting the 180 visible slots. (Or, to put it another way, filling up 11 pages of 16 spaces, plus four in the dock).

iOS 4
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The result was a cry—OK, maybe it was just a gentle plea from most people, but it was a cry from us app-hoarders—for a better way to access and manage apps. Rob Griffiths put this wish into specific terms back in 2008, asking for Home-screen folders. With iOS 4, we get just such a feature, even if it’s been much slower in coming than some of us might have hoped.

Folders in a nutshell
A folder in iOS 4 is a group of apps you access by tapping a single icon on your iPhone’s Home screen. When you tap a folder—which sports an icon that includes miniature versions of the icons of the apps inside, along with a name intended to describe the folder’s contents (more on that in a moment)—the dock fades and slides down, and the main Home-screen area fades and slides up to make room for a view of the folder’s contents. This view shows the name and full-size icon of each app. Tap on any app to launch it, or tap anywhere outside the folder area to close the folder and return to the Home screen.



A new install—not an update—of iOS 4 includes a folder containing a few of Apple's apps.
If you’re using an iPhone 4, or if you’ve restored an older iPhone or iPod touch to iOS 4, you’ll see a stock folder named Utilities that includes Apple’s Clock, Calculator, Compass, Voice Memos, and Notes apps. If you’ve updated an iPhone or iPod touch to iOS 4 from an older version of the iPhone OS, you won’t have any folders until you create one yourself.

A folder can contain up to 12 apps. When you consider the 180 icon spaces on the iPhone’s 11 visible Home screens—yes, you can even place folders in the dock—iOS 4’s folders feature lets you view up to 2,160 apps! You can still install more than that number, but, as before, those that don’t fit on the 11 visible screens will be accessible only via Spotlight search. (No, you can’t place a folder inside another folder to gain more visible slots. If you feel the need to install more than 2,160 apps on your iPhone, you may have bigger problems than accessing apps.)

While iOS 4’s folder icons, which squeeze up to nine tiny app icons in the space of a standard-size icon, may seem less than useful at first, I found that, even on an iPhone 3G or 3GS, the mini icons are surprisingly identifiable, especially for apps with icons that are already familiar to me. I suspect this will be even more true on the iPhone 4’s higher-resolution display when that phone arrives later this week.

I also like how Apple has handled status badges, those little white-on-red numbers attached to the corner of an app's icon that indicate, say, the number of unread messages in Mail or new articles in your RSS reader. If a folder contains one or more apps with a status badge, the folder gains a badge displaying the sum of those badges. In other words, if you've got 12 unread e-mail messages in Mail, 37 new articles in Reeder, and three new notifications in Boxcar, a folder containing those apps will sport a badge displaying 52.

Creating and editing folders
So how do you create a folder? First, enter iPhone’s standard Home-screen-editing mode by tapping and holding any app icon until app icons begin to shake and you see the delete (x) button in the upper-left corner of non-stock apps. Then drag one of the apps you want to include in your folder onto any other app you want to include. The Home screen will fade and you’ll see a folder display—still in editing mode—containing both apps.

You’ll also see a folder-name field. This field is automatically filled based on the App Store category of one of the first two apps in the folder. If you’d rather use a different name, just tap in the name field (while still in edit mode) and then edit the name. When you’re done, press the Home button to exit edit mode.

To add another app to the folder, enter editing mode again and then drag the desired app onto the folder icon. Repeat until you’ve added all the apps you want—up to 12, remember—and then press the Home button to finish editing. Note that if you drag an app onto a folder and hold it there for a couple seconds, the folder will open, still in edit mode, letting you place the new app exactly where you want it within the folder.



Editing a folder's contents and name on the iPhone
To edit a folder itself—its name, its contents, or the layout of the apps inside—you can either enter editing mode normally and then tap the folder to edit it, or, if the folder is already open, just tap-and-hold any icon inside. You can then tap the folder name to edit it, drag app icons around within the folder to rearrange them, drag an app out of the folder (and onto the surrounding Home screen) to remove the app from the folder, or tap an app’s delete button to completely delete the app from the iPhone.

Unlike apps, a folder doesn’t have a delete button. To delete a folder altogether, you must remove all the apps from it. Once you drag the last remaining app from a folder—or delete that app outright—the folder simply disappears.

Overall, folders are easy to use, create, and edit and are a welcome addition to the iPhone. However, they do need some fine tuning that I expect will happen in future iOS 4 updates. For example, when trying to rearrange app icons on your Home screens, it’s too easy to accidentally create a new app folder, or to add an app to an existing folder, when all you really want to do is to position an app between two items.

Taking advantage of folders
Although one benefit of folders is that promiscuous downloaders can now see more than 180 apps at a time, even casual app users can reap rewards from this new feature. For example, you can now group similar apps in ways other than screens—the more obsessive-compulsive among us no longer must agonize over which combination of 16 apps best fills a particular home screen. Instead, you can place, say, all your transit and transportation apps in one folder, your travel guides in another, and your food apps in a third—and use up only three spots on a Home screen in the process.



Finally, a way to hide the stock iPhone apps you rarely use
This example also illustrates another folder advantage: condensing your most frequently used apps into just one or two screens. Instead of having to swipe across five or six (or more) Home screens, accessing your favorite apps is now a matter of locating the appropriate folder on just one or two screens and then launching the desired app. Since I started using folders extensively, I’ve found that, whereas I used to regularly access nearly every one of my iPhone’s 11 visible screens, I’m now using mainly the first few.

And, of course, folders provide an alternative to one of the most requested—but still missing—iPhone features: the ability to delete the stock apps you never use. I don’t see Apple providing such a feature any time soon, but you can now stick all those unused stock apps into a folder and put that folder in the boondocks of your iPhone’s Home screens.

Managing folders in iTunes
The capability to create and edit folders isn’t limited to iOS 4 itself. Just as you’ve long been able to manage your installed apps when you sync with iTunes on your computer, the newly released iTunes 9.2 lets you organize your iOS 4 apps and folders using your mouse and keyboard.

When your iPhone or iPod touch is connected to your computer, the Apps view in iTunes 9.2 looks and functions much as it did before, letting you choose which apps to sync to your iPhone, as well as decide how synced apps are organized on and between screens. But drag an app onto another app, and after a slight delay, a folder is created—just as if you’d performed the same action on the iPhone. You get the same editable folder name, and you can rearrange icons within the folder. The main difference is that, of course, you can use iTunes to manage folders only when your iPhone or iPod touch is connected to your computer. On the other hand, you don't need to click-hold to enter the jiggling-icon editing mode; you just click and drag at any time. Similarly, to edit an existing folder, you just double-click it. And my favorite advantage to performing this task in iTunes is that you can Command-click several apps and drag them onto another app or onto an existing folder all at once.



You can also create and edit app folders in iTunes 9.2.
Oddly, creating and editing folders in iTunes suffers from the opposite challenges of performing those tasks on an iPhone or iPod touch itself: Instead of too easily creating or adding to folders when you’re trying to simply rearrange apps on the screen, I find that iTunes’ Apps view too often moves app and folder icons out of the way when I’m trying to create or add to folders. Somewhere in between the sensitivity of on-iPhone and in-iTunes Home screen editing would be just about perfect.

And I did experience one issue where, after creating a number of folders in iTunes, and then syncing my iPhone with iTunes, all the folders disappeared and my apps were rearranged (on the phone) in alphabetical order—an incident that required quite a bit of time and effort to recover from. Thankfully, this didn’t happen again.

Next up, fixing iTunes
The capability to organize apps into folders is a great new feature that’s been a long time coming. It’s sure to be a favorite among those who, like me, have far too many apps. It doesn’t solve all the issues with managing your apps, especially within iTunes, but it's a big step up from swipe, swipe, swipe

original article.

Radio Shack to Sell Apple iPhone 4 with Sweetened Deal

The Apple iPhone 4 will go on sale at Radio Shack, as well Wal-Mart, Best Buy, AT&T and Apple online and retail stores beginning June 24. Radio Shack will also begin taking pre-orders June 15 and allow customers to trade in older electronics toward their iPhone 4 purchase.


Apple has added Radio Shack to its small cadre of retail partners who will begin offering the iPhone 4 June 24.

Following Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ June 7 introduction of the iPhone 4, Apple announced that newest smartphone will begin selling in Apple and AT&T retail and online stores, as well as at Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores. For those wanting to assure they have an iPhone 4 in hand June 24, Apple’s Online Store will begin accepting order reservations in the United States, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom on June 15.

AT&T and Wal-Mart will also begin taking pre-orders June 15, and as of June 14, Radio Shack had also gotten in the action. According to PC World, a Radio Shack in Boston will begin taking pre-orders at 7 a.m. — making it a good bet for getting on the list.

On June 24, Radio Shack will additionally be sweetening its iPhone deal with a device turn-in program. Consumers purchasing an Apple iPhone 4 can bring in older electronics and put the devices’ estimated values toward an iPhone 4 purchase.

At a Brooklyn-area Radio Shack, a sales representative named Shaquana told eWEEK that only some electronics trade-ins will be allowed in-store, and others will have to be arranged online. Devices that one can safely trade-in at the store, she said, include “phones and game consoles, chargers, old cameras and camcorders.”

While the iPhone 4 will retail for $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model, at Apple and AT&T online and retail stores, AT&T announced June 7 that it will be offering its “best pricing” to current iPhone customers who are eligible for an upgrade anytime in 2010.

“Individual iPhone voice and data plans now start at just $54.99 per month (was previously $69.99) and FamilyTalk voice and data plans with two iPhones start at just $89.99 per month (was $119.99). Our data plans all include unlimited usage at more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the U.S.,” Bridges told eWEEK in an email.

The exact language for upgrades, she added, is: “Any existing iPhone customer eligible for an upgrade between [June 7] and the end of this year will be eligible for our best pricing for iPhone 4, $199 and $299, with a two year term commitment.”

The difference, she added, “is that what’s important is iPhone customers’ current upgrade date…not when their contract expires. That’s better for customers, since many customers are upgrade-eligible well before their contract expires.”

To check upgrade eligibility, iPhone owners can dial *639# or visit www.att.com/iphone.

On June 24, Apple will also begin offering its 8GB iPhone 3GS for $99, and AT&T will offer the 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3GS for $159 and $199, respectively — with a two-year commitment plus voice and data plans.

original article.

WOW... see the Internet has weird ways of impacting your life.. i can semi relate to this story and its not because i was kidnapped or anything but i haven't spoken or seen my mom in like 13 years and then maybe about 2 yrs she found me on myspace and i had the same response.. i was content with my life and i know now that the father has been arrested its going to be even harder for the children to build a relationship with their mother.. read on to find out more about the article.


A San Bernardino mother whose children were kidnapped 15 years ago was able to finally track them down using Facebook.

San Bernardino’s Deputy District Attorney says it’s the first time his office has handled a case like this one. But in this digital age, it may not be the last.

Faustino Utrera, father of two toddlers, a boy and girl, vanished with them in 1995. Their mother reported them missing and 15 years passed. "At the time, they were 2 and 3 years old. So they’re now 17 and 16," said Kurt Rowley, San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney.

But in those years, the Internet exploded and social networking sites revolutionized the process of tracking people down.

"The mother got on to Facebook and typed in one of the children’s names and hit a Facebook page," said Rowley.

It was her daughter, and they started corresponding. The mother even sent the teenager a family photo, dating back to before the split. But the relationship stalled. "The teenager said, 'Not interested in a relationship. We just have a happy life. Leave us alone,'" said Rowley.

The teen’s Facebook page disappeared. The mother, who still lives in San Bernardino, contacted Rowley and his investigators. They tracked the Facebook profile and the girl to Orlando, Fla.

Utrera was then arrested and is now charged with two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of violating child custody orders.

As for the mother and her children, they will have to build a new relationship.

"There is no relationship there," said Carrie Hoeppner of the Florida Department of Children & Families. "You don't have that immediate joyful reunification. If in fact that is what will progress, it will take time. These children will have to build a relationship, and that is something that will not happen overnight."


original article.